Announcements

According to a post on the Indiana Genealogical Society’ Blog, effective 1 September 2015, the Indiana State Library will be open from 10:00am – 4:00pm on Saturdays. Previously, the Saturday hours had been from 8:00am – 4:00pm.

I think this is a huge advancement in online searches for genealogy information. I saw the brand-new Global Name Translation demonstrated earlier today at the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) annual conference in Jerusalem and I am very impressed.

Global Name Translation is the easy way to search through MyHeritage’s massive multilingual and international database of 6 billion family tree profiles and historical records. As stated in the announcement below, the Global Name Translation “…automatically translates names found in historical records and family trees from one language into another, in very high accuracy, generating all the plausible translations, to facilitate matches between names in different languages. In addition, a manual search in one language will also provide results in other languages, translated back to the user’s language for convenience.”

Click on the above image to view a larger version

A search for “Jacob Schmidt” will find all the results shown above and more.

Yes, that’s right. If your ancestors came from a country that keeps its records in a language other than your preferred language, you can enter the search in your own language and MyHeritage will find matches for the same or very similar names in other languages as well. For instance, a search for Alexander or for Alessandro (Alexander in Italian) will also find “Саша” which is the Russian form of Sasha, a popular nickname of Alexander in Russia.

The first version successfully translates names to and from English, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Greek, Hebrew, Polish, Czech, Russian and Ukrainian. The next version currently in development will add Chinese and Japanese, and additional languages will follow.

I am not aware of any other genealogy service that has anything like this.

June 16, 2015—Salt Lake City, Utah, and Boston, Massachusetts—Extreme Genes, America’s Family History Radio Show, and New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) today jointly issued an announcement of their collaboration and innovative sharing in the broadcast production of the very popular Extreme Genes program.

It used to be that the only way of getting copies of archival documents was a bit of a tedious process. Flagging the pages you wanted copied, filling out the form, handing in the information to the Consultation staff, and then waiting the 30 business days for the copies to be made. If you were not someone who was from the Ottawa-Gatineau area, you would then have to wait for the copies to be mailed out to you. If you were in the National Capital Region, but not a regular visitor, you might have to make a special trip to 395 Wellington Street to pick up your copies. Now the process can be much quicker if you choose. If you have a camera or a smartphone, you can now take digital images of our collection, rights and restrictions permitting.

Most of us have seen pedigree charts before, even large charts. However, Andrew Tatham has created a very impressive 6 foot x 3 foot (approx 2 metres x 1 metre) chart that shows Prince George of Cambridge, his ancestors and their place in history. You can see some low-resolution snippets from the full-sized chart below:

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced “Common Heritage,” the first grant of its kind, to make “light historical records and artifacts currently hidden in family attics and basements” available to the public. In announcing the initiative, NEH Chairman William “Bro” Adams said, “We know that America’s cultural heritage isn’t found only in libraries and museums, but in our homes, in our family histories, and the stories and objects we pass down to our children.”

The announcement states, “The program supports day-long events organized by community cultural institutions, which members of the public will be invited to attend. At these events experienced staff will digitize the community historical materials brought in by the public. Project staff will also record descriptive information—provided by community attendees—about the historical materials. Contributors will be given a free digital copy of their items to take home, along with the original materials. With the owner’s permission, digital copies of these materials would be included in the institutions’ collections. Historical photographs, artifacts, documents, family letters, art works, and audiovisual recordings are among the many items eligible for digitization and public commemoration.”

The following information was written by the folks at JewishGen Education:

Genealogy is more than statistics and facts. This class will give you a chance to understand the Jewish immigration experience and we’ll discover tricks and tips to successfully search for Jewish ancestry.

With each passing generation, the torch passes to children whose lifestyle is further from the immigrant experience. Now we have to dig deep in order to bring up images and voices from the past, to understand and recreate their lives.

Geni.com is a very popular genealogy web site with many features. However, it is best known for showing how people are connected to one another. The term “connected” is not restricted to blood relatives. In Geni.com’s definition, people are connected via marriage and by in-law relationships as well as by bloodlines. Now the company has added adoptees to show people as part of “the family.” I suspect most adoptees will agree with that definition.

Today we are delighted to announce a long awaited new feature on Geni – adoption! We are releasing a great enhancement to the family tree that will allow you to show adoptive, foster and biological parent relationships when viewing your family on Geni.

The following announcement was written by the the folks at the ProGen Study Program:

Laurel, Maryland: December 29, 2014

For the past six years Angela Packer McGhie has served as the administrator of the ProGen Study Program. She has encouraged genealogists to study Professional Genealogy: A Manual for Researchers, Writers, Editors, Lecturers and Librarians, edited by Elizabeth Shown Mills, by organizing online groups to work through the book, completing practical exercises and discussing each topic. At the end of 2014, Angela McGhie will transition to a position on the board of directors of the ProGen Study Group.

Rebecca Whitman Koford, CG has been named as the new administrator of the ProGen Study Program, and will begin her service on January 1, 2015. Rebecca has completed the ProGen program, served as a group coordinator, and is well prepared to take over leadership of the ProGen Study Program.

A new society has just been announced: The Surname Society. It sounds like a competitor to the already-existing Guild of One-Name Studies. It should be interesting to see if the new organization grows and becomes popular.

The founder members are delighted to announce the launch of The Surname Society – the online society for individuals, groups and associations with an interest in surname studies, regardless of their location in the world, the surname they are studying, or their level of research expertise.

Focusing on single surname studies, the society meets the needs of researchers in the world of family history and genealogy as it evolves in the 21st century. The Surname Society’s vision is to connect like-minded people by providing facilities which enable members to share knowledge, data and good practice with others. The society allows members to register both worldwide and limited studies and is entirely online. Collaboration is facilitated and encouraged as it is the core ethos of The Surname Society.

Hiring professional help is considered too costly for many seeking to learn about their ancestors. Genealogy firm, Legacy Tree Genealogists, seeks change.

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — November 6, 2014 — This week Legacy Tree Genealogists revealed their aim to make professional research affordable to all through familyfunding(TM), which leverages social media to allow family and friends to easily pool resources and contribute to the costs of family history research. This type of funding, often referred to as crowdfunding or fundraising, is becoming more and more common, and streamlining it for professional genealogy just makes sense.

TLC’s Who Do You Think You Are? was honored with its second Emmy nomination for Outstanding Structured Reality Program for the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards. The series takes some of the most well-known names in America on a journey into their personal family histories, mining their surprising pasts to reveal unknown details about themselves and their families. The featured celebrity contributors share how the eye-opening revelations they uncover about their backgrounds impact their lives today.

In honor of Memorial Day, MyHeritage is offering FREE access to millions of US military records. The free access will be available to search from May 23 to May 26.

Military records are valuable resources that provide insight into the lives of those who have served in the armed forces, as well as their families. With these records, users can learn about their ancestors and honor their memory and service to their country.

MyHeritage has created a special search page for the military collections that will be free over the Memorial Day weekend: www.myheritage.com/memorialday.

Library and Archives Canada has seen a lot of internal turmoil in the past year or two. Some of the problems were described in my earlier articles. You can find those articles by starting at http://goo.gl/B469KJ. New leadership has now been announced and the new Librarian and Archivist of Canada will (hopefully) bring stability to the agency.

The following was written by the Office of the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages:

Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages Shelly Glover today announced the appointment of Guy Berthiaume as Librarian and Archivist of Canada for a term of five years, effective June 23, 2014.

Dick Eastman has been involved in genealogy for more than 30 years. He
has worked in the computer industry for more than 40 years in hardware,
software, and managerial positions. By the early 1970s, Dick was already
using a mainframe computer to enter his family data on punch cards. He
built his first home computer in 1980.

September 24 & 25, 2016 - Third International Family History Conference, Clare, Ireland

Dick Eastman LIVE at your event

Dick Eastman is available for presentations and full-day seminars at genealogy conferences around the world. Dick knows that sitting through a boring speech is painful. Therefore, he keeps things light and humorous, giving presentations that are educational, motivational, and entertaining.